Video Music Awards

Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" was named the best video of the year in the 10th annual MTV Video Music Awards announced Thursday night. The Seattle group's harrowing depiction of a teen suicide also won in the group and metal/hard-rock categories. The award for best male video went to Lenny Kravitz for "Are You Gonna Go My Way," while k.d. lang took the female video prize for "Constant Craving." Other winners: * Rap: Arrested Development's "People Everyday." * Dance: En Vogue's "Free Your Mind."

The MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday in New York City will be marked by a tender farewell to late R&B singer Aaliyah, and to the continuing birth of the music station's little sister, MTV2. MTV officials always keep much of the show's special moments under wraps--indeed, surprises such as Pee-wee Herman's famous appearance in 1991 are the event's trademark draw--but they are hinting that Aaliyah's death in a Caribbean plane crash on Aug.

Hip-hop and R&B are the strongest backbeat of MTV at the moment, and that was evident Tuesday with the naming of the 2004 nominees for the channel's annual Video Music Awards. Jay-Z led the field with six nods, and his gritty "99 Problems" will contend for best video honors with "Hey Ya!" by OutKast, "Yeah!" by Usher, "My Band" by D12 and "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

Van Halen, one of rock 'n' roll's most enduring bands, has never played live on television. Rock recluse Prince rarely appears in public, much less in front of a TV camera. Bad boys Guns N' Roses and heavy-metal Metallica, which has the nation's current No. 1 album, are in the midst of European concert tours. Yet all four acts will perform live tonight at 6 on the MTV Video Music Awards--with Guns N' Roses via satellite from Wembley Stadium in England.

The Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot has received praise from artists including Björk, Madonna, Green Day and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now the band is returning the favor. In a new video communique released by MTV, two members of the group thanked all those artists for their outspoken support while rappelling down the side of a large structure draped in a Pussy Riot banner. The video closes with them setting off flares to ignite a portrait of Vladimir Putin. It's unclear whether  those two balaclava-clad members are the same two who recently escaped from Russia under threat of prosecution . The group prizes anonymity, and technically, anyone can don the mask and be an axillary member of Pussy Riot.  But the video's curiously high production values and perilous stunt work -- a reference to some members' madcap rooftop escape from Russian police -- raises its own questions, especially given its release just before tonight's Video Music Awards on MTV. Chris Martins at Spin raises the hypothetical possibility that it's no coincidence at all . MTV is reportedly asking artists about Pussy Riot on the red carpet, and it broke the story of the video message.

R.E.M. won four MTV Video Music Awards and Aerosmith took three, including video of the year, during Thursday night's program that opened with Michael and Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson making their first live TV appearance as husband and wife. Nirvana won the art direction and alternative music prizes, and upon getting the second award, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl referred to singer Kurt Cobain's suicide earlier this year: "It would be silly to say it doesn't feel like something's missing.

I curled up with my 15-year-old daughter, Skyler Rose, a few nights ago to watch the MTV Video Music Awards to see the cream of pop, hip-hop and rap music. But we were unnerved by the message delivered by host Chris Rock: It's not just lonely at the top--it's humiliating. Jennifer Lopez, he said, needed two limousines: one for her and one for her rear-end. He complimented the Backstreet Boys after their performance, calling them "crackers with attitude."

Twenty years ago today, MTV changed the face of cable--for better or worse. It began at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 1, 1981, with the video for the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star," the first of countless videos featuring artists who were famous and others we would come to know. Over the course of two decades, we've seen the move toward game shows ("Remote Control"), unscripted shows ("The Real World"), award shows ("Video Music Awards") and news programs, all aimed at young viewers who became known as the "MTV generation."

Rock fans wouldn't necessarily think of 1992 as "Van Halen's year." Yet the veteran hard-rock group fended off such contenders as U2, Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers in walking away with the most honors--three--at Wednesday's MTV Video Music Awards, on the strength of a smart, engaging video that far outclassed those even by more momentarily essential acts.